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As it becomes late in the season, the sparrow activity quiets down a lot. The birds aren’t singing late in the day, there aren’t as many nests to find, and the sparrows are just more difficult to find in general– except for the juveniles.

While we at Ecostudies Institute primarily work on birds, I had the opportunity to attend a week-long workshop about the other group of fascinating, flying creatures: Bats! Many of the same technical challenges of monitoring bird also aggravate and perplex bat biologists. Their flight, for example, makes them difficult to catch or track.

Since the field season has entered the summer months, we field technicians have met challenges that were quite rare in late March and early April. For example, this past week brought forth a series of rain events that were never a concern in the beginning of the field season. When we check our radar phone app at 5:00 in […]

One of our main tasks over the past two months has been to conduct point counts for Cape Sable seaside sparrows. A point count is a survey method used to count birds, where an observer stands at a single location and records all of the birds seen and heard in a given amount of time. Through […]

The most important cue to observe when nest-searching is bird behavior. Cape Sable seaside sparrows nest in grass cups in the marl prairies of the Everglades, so finding their nest without watching them can be nearly impossible. Nest-finding has been my favorite aspect of all of my positions as a field technician, so I want to […]

By Katie Leonard|May 23rd, 2017|News|Comments Off on Locating nests in the marl prairies of the Everglades|

…especially when you get to fly! As the biologist who is responsible for the Estuary Restoration Project surveys, I had the very great pleasure of being able to take to the skies in the name of science last week.

In my day-to-day responsibilities, which are decidedly earthbound, […]

By Leah Rensel|May 15th, 2017|News|Comments Off on Taking to the Skies in the Name of Science|

We are nearing the midpoint of the 2017 Cape Sable Seaside Sparrow field season, which seems like a good time to share some of the interesting sightings our crew has observed out in the field. The Florida Everglades has a rich diversity of wildlife. Some animals are more conspicuous, but most of the time […]

By David Tafoya|May 15th, 2017|News|Comments Off on Other forms of life observed by the Cape Sable Seaside Sparrow Crew|

South Florida is considered to be one of the most interesting birding locations in the country and reasonably so. On a nice spring morning, you can see dozens of species of migratory birds flying overhead. You can also find amazing wintering birds, such as the scissor-tailed flycatcher and rufous hummingbird, or breeding birds, such as […]

The fog hovered over the sawgrass clumps as my fellow field techs and I walked to follow the harsh buzzy okachee-weee sounds in the distance. The field was saturated with morning dew and the sun was slowly beginning to rise. Suddenly, a flash of brown and yellow appeared in the distance. We got busy working to capture this […]

By Abigail Chambers|April 9th, 2017|News|Comments Off on The Song of a Cape Sable Seaside Sparrow in the Morning|

“Why should I care about this bird?”

Or – “What does it do for us?” Two questions I get asked very often, sometimes at the same time put together in one compound sentence. It is an anthropocentric question that I personally find very difficult to answer for a number of reasons. I’ve been asked this question countless times and yet I […]

By Tom Virzi|March 19th, 2017|News|Comments Off on “Why should I care about this bird?”|

Ecostudies Institute

Ecostudies Institute was established in 2001 as a 501(c)(3) non-profit, scientific organization. We are dedicated to understanding and conserving native populations of birds, other wildlife, and their habitats. Learn more »

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